Vintage Bird & Butterfly Mani

Base is Elcorazon Charm & Beauty 892 (greyish blue) for all nails. I placed a piece of striping tape near the tip (or near cuticles for some fingers) and painted Elcorazon Charm & Beauty 880 (dusty purple) on the divided section. I stamped a swirly pattern on Moyra 05 Vintage using Messy Mansion Soft Gold on the purple part. Then I made some stamping decals out of bird, bird cage, and butterfly from Moyra 05 Vintage & Moyra 14 Moments using Mundo de Unas Dark Gray, and coloured in with Elcorazon Active Biogel 423/277 Cream (light pink). I placed those decals on each nail and finished off with HK Girl topcoat followed by Essie Matte About You.

I'm super happy with how this turned out. Moyra's vintage images are so gorgeous, and I think I chose the right colours for the theme. Few days before Moyra plates got here, I also received my third Elcorazon order, which contained 9 dusty cream polishes. Purple and pink I used here are part of it, and they really arrived at the right time to do this mani.

Moyra Stamping Plate Review

I'm so glad I could finally have this post up. I recently purchased 5 Moyra stamping plates and today's post is a review and experience about them.Moyra is a company based in Hungary which sells nail products. They released a bunch of stamping plates late last year, and created a big hype because their plates are out of this world beautiful. I got to know this brand in October last year, and have been searching for ways to purchase them. I contacted Moyra through facebook messaging, and they offered to sell me directly but the shipping and paypal fee was a bit steep for me, so I waited for some Australian sellers to start stocking them.Fast forward to February this year. I found a seller in Australia who sells Moyra plates, so I contacted them, not realising this was going to be the beginning of a nightmare. This is how the order went:

Feb 1: I made an inquiry with Moyra Australia if they were going to sell Moyra stamping plates. I got reply about the pricing (AUD$9/plate & free shipping), so placed an order via email.Feb 9: 8 days later, they sent me an invoice so I paid via bank transfer (not paypal) and they confirmed the payment.Feb 18: 9 days later, I asked for an update. They told me they shipped on this day. No tracking was issued, but I didn't ask for one because my order was free shipping, and I assumed the mail would be sent as unregistered.March 2: 2 weeks have passed and still no parcel, so I asked if they could track the parcel on their end. No reply for 5 days.March 4: I talked to Moyra Headquarters (Hungary) via facebook. They told me that shipment of stamping plates from HQ to Australia hasn't arrived yet. I'm starting to have a bad feeling.March 7: Moyra Australia replied that the parcel returned for some reason. (Oh really?) They said to send again and would let me know about the shipping details. This turned out to be the last email I received from them.March 14: 7 days later, still no update so I emailed them to find out what was going on. No response.March 23: The order arrived without warning. I tried reading the shipped date on the package, and I could read it as '21 March', although I could be wrong as it was faded. That means they kept the 'alleged return parcel' for 14 days without resending me.

So to recap, I received my order 6 weeks after I paid. Sigh. I chose this seller because it's located in the same state as I live, and I thought I should get my order fastest through them. Based on what Moyra HQ told me, it looks as if this distributor started to take orders when they have nothing in stock. If that's the case, they should take pre-orders and tell us the estimated time of arrival. They didn't give me any shipping details they promised, and I never got apology for delay and all the troubles. Their communication is super slow, unclear, and the customer service is so unprofessional. (UPDATE: I left a feedback on their facebook page describing what happened, but I checked back today to find it deleted.) I would not recommend this seller to anyone, and I would not buy from them again.Moyra HQ (Hungary), on the other hand, responded very quickly and with sincerity to every inquiry I made. I really wanted to buy from them directly, but the shipping fee from Hungary was a bit steep for me. If you live in Europe, definitely order from them.

Each plate has a plastic backing with logo printed. Make sure you don't use acetone on the printing as it will be faded.

プレートの裏にはロゴが印刷された薄い台座が付いています。印刷部分はアセトンで溶けてしまうので要注意。

Both the plate and the backing is quite thin and slightly warped, and as you can see, one end of plate lifts up from the table (not lying flat) when I hold down the other end. I'm not a big fan of flimsy plate like this, as I know from experience that it makes it hard to get a consistent scrape on some of the images; meaning one part of the image tends to get more polish while other part gets scraped too much. To workaround it, make sure you hold down the plate tight when you scrape.Now, I'll show you each plate pic (after removing blue film off), followed by paper swatch. Paper swatch is done with Messy Mansion pink soft stamper, and regular metallic polishes.

First up is 01 Globetrotter, a country themed plate. One thing to note about Moyra plates is that the images are huge. The full size images, like those on the top row of this plate, are 2.5cm x 2.0cm. And the quality? I'm quite impressed. Some of the images come out quite dense such as Big Ben and the Japanese fan, but that's how the images are engraved.

Next up is 03 Ornaments. Swirl heaven! Am I the only one who just can't get enough of swirl stamps? Really love this plate. I didn't like how some of the images came out, so I restamped with Mundo de Unas polish (3rd pic). All looking good.

Next up is 05 Vintage. This is hands down the most beautiful plate I have in my collection. These vintage/retro images are what sets Moyra apart from other brand plates. And the great part is, they all stamp beautifully.

So my thoughts on Moyra plates? Simply amazing. Images are beautiful, innovative, and unique. I've heard some girls receive faulty plates with mis-etching, but my plates seem to be all fine. I do recommend testing yours though as soon as you receive them.

Blue Stripe & Triangle Mani

I created another design using the fabulous Pueen Love Box 02 I was sent for review. Last mani was green, but this time I went for blue.I started off with A-England Cathy for all nails. Then I stamped a fancy looking pattern on Fancy Lover 02 plate using Pueen Baby Blue from Super Intense collection. I coloured in decals with JOSS Boldest Blue and Face of Australia Don't Judge Me, cut them in rectangle and triangle shape, and placed them on each nail. For pointer and pinkie, I added a black triangle stud as well. Finished off with HK Girl topcoat.Did I say I love this JOSS blue? I really do, and it works well with the pastel blue and black. It's quite easily done (except for the long drying time) but I'm happy with the result.

Green x Gold Sunray Mani

I created my first design using Pueen Love Box 02 set I did a review on my previous post.Middle & ring finger: I started off with base coat. I placed a circle tape from What's Up Nails near cuticle area, then painted the bottom part of the nails with Barry M Christmas Gold. I peeled off the tape and applied topcoat on the gold part. When that's dry, I placed 5 pieces of striping tape on the gold, painted black over them and peeled them off immediately. Then I made a stamping decal out of arched lacy pattern on Pueen Fairytale Lover 02 plate using Hit the Bottle I Wish I were a Mermaid, and coloured in with black polish. I placed the decals on these nails, added a triangle stud I bought in Japan, then finished off with HK Girl topcoat.Thumb, pointer & pinkie: I started off with elcorazon Matte & Shine 163. I placed 3 sets of striping tape diagonally on these nails and painted black over them. I peeled the tapes immediately and finished off with topcoat.I'm really loving this arched lacey stamp on Pueen plate, and I knew it would make an elegant mani. Stamp, tapes, and studs - This mani has everything I adore.

Striping tape manis can be messy sometimes, but I'm quite impressed that those lines came out nice and crisp

Hit the BottleのI Wish I Were a Mermaidとelcorazonの緑、なかなかよくマッチしていると思いませんか？完全一致ではないですが、キラキラ具合といい色味といいだいぶ良く似ているので違和感なく仕上がったと思います。スタッズといいテープ使いといい、非常に「カシスっぽい」ネイルだなぁと自分で思う。いつもはデザインや色の選択でひとしきり悩むところを、このネイルに関してはほぼ即興で仕上げました。いつもこんなだといいんだけど。

Pueen Cosmetics Love Box Stamping Set 02 Review

Have you seen the news that Pueen Cosmetics has released Love Box 02 set? I have, and am really excited because their first Love Box (review post here) was fantastic. After having a rather stressful week, it was a treat to receive this new Love Box in the mail.Before I go into review, here are the links to Pueen Cosmetics store and SNS:

I'll show you the stamper and scraper first. The stamper has a white head and is about 2.6cm in diameter so it's rather small. Scraper I believe is made of cardboard paper, but is coated with plastic film which makes it durable. Size is 5.5cm x 4.5cm.

I have 3 different kinds of stampers from Pueen, and here's the comparison. Left is the stamper from the first Love Box (referred to as Love Box 01) I did a review on this post. Middle is the stamper from Love Box 02, and the right is Crystal Stamper I did a review on this post.

Is there a difference between Love Box 01 stamper and Love Box 02 stamper? Yes there is. As you can see on the bottom pic, Love Box 02 stamper is slightly bigger than 01 stamper. 02 stamper is about 2.6cm in diameter, where 01 stamper is about 2.5cm in diameter. Pink holder is exactly the same with both sets.

Another difference is the squishiness. Love Box 01 stamper was quite soft, but Love Box 02 stamper is on the firm side. As a marshmallow lover, this change is a bit sad. As I did before, I'll try to categorise the squishiness of each of these stampers below:

Let's look at how the stamper picks up next. The head is a bit oily, so I went ahead and washed it with soapy water. No other priming. Stamping plates are from Love Box 01 and stamping polishes are Pueen Super Intense polishes.

This is what back of each plate looks like. Each plate has its own collection name, pueen logo and the website printed, same as Love Box 01 set. This plastic backing is quite thick, making the plate nice and sturdy. I also love that the backing is exactly the same size with the plate itself unlike many other brand plates, because cleaning the polish off the plastic part that's sticking out of the plate is quite a pain.

First up is Nature Lover 02, full of flowers, leaves and butterflies. As with Love Box 01, full size image on this set is about 2.4cm x 1.8cm. Plate is nicely etched and every image stamps beautifully, despite the fact that I'm using a regular polish.

Ancient Celtic Book Mani

With St. Patrick Day approaching, I thought I might create some Celtic mani. This is actually my first ever St. Pats/Celtic design.I started off with Dior Brown Sugar for all my nails. I stamped a script pattern from Messy Mansion MM24 using Hit the Bottle Copper Haired Girl and Messy Mansion Crystal Stamper 1.0. Then I took few drops of A-England Virgin Queen & Fotheringhay Castle on makeup sponge, and dabbled randomly on my nails. Then I made stamping decals out of Celtic designs on Messy Mansion Symetrika 06 plate using Mundo de Uñas Military Green & Blue Gray, and coloured in with red, green, camel, and blue. I placed the decals on pointer, middle & ring finger, and finished off with HK Girl topcoat followed by Essie Matte About You.Honestly I don't know much about anything Celtic, so I had a bit of googling to find out what sort of designs and colour scheme is appropriate. Then I remembered I had a fabulous script plate (Messy Mansion MM24), so I combined the script with Celtic designs to create this mani. I did a sponging with A-England shades and used rusty colours to create an antique effect. I really had fun creating this mani.